♂️ Want to meet Acharya Prashant?
Be a part of the Live Sessions: https://acharyaprashant.org/hi/enquir...
Want to read Acharya Prashant's Books?
Get Free Delivery: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/books?...
➖➖➖➖➖➖
Video Information: Advait Learning Camp, 26.08.2018, Mandu, Madhya Pradesh, India
Context:
This awareness of the truth makes an eloquent, clever and energetic man dumb, stupid and lazy, so it is avoided by those whose aim is enjoyment.
~ Ashtavakra Gita (Chapter-15, Verse-3)
~ Will the knower of the Truth become dull and lazy?
~ Is the doer exists at all?
~ Why man of Truth not afraid anymore?
~ What is the real meaning of dullness, stupidity and laziness in this verse?
~ Why do we want to speak a lot?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Be a part of the Live Sessions: https://acharyaprashant.org/hi/enquir...
Want to read Acharya Prashant's Books?
Get Free Delivery: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/books?...
➖➖➖➖➖➖
Video Information: Advait Learning Camp, 26.08.2018, Mandu, Madhya Pradesh, India
Context:
This awareness of the truth makes an eloquent, clever and energetic man dumb, stupid and lazy, so it is avoided by those whose aim is enjoyment.
~ Ashtavakra Gita (Chapter-15, Verse-3)
~ Will the knower of the Truth become dull and lazy?
~ Is the doer exists at all?
~ Why man of Truth not afraid anymore?
~ What is the real meaning of dullness, stupidity and laziness in this verse?
~ Why do we want to speak a lot?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00Dear Acharyaji, Pranam.
00:10In chapter 15, verse 3, Ashtavakra says,
00:17This awareness of the truth makes an eloquent, clever and energetic man dumb, stupid and
00:23lazy.
00:25So it is avoided by those whose aim is enjoyment.
00:29Acharyaji, Ashtavakra is pointing at what kind of dullness, stupidity and laziness.
00:43Will the knower of truth become dull, stupid, lazy?
00:48Surely, it has to be something else.
00:53Is it not so, that rather the people seeking enjoyment are dull and stupid?
01:02Thank you with love and gratitude, Pradeep from Pune.
01:16When Ashtavakra says, Dumb, that has to be read as an absence of the tendency to be verbiose.
01:41Ashtavakra says that truth turns the eloquent man dumb.
01:50Dumb not in the sense of mental inadequacy.
01:56Dumb in the sense of disappearance of the tendency to be profligate with words.
02:06We want to speak a lot, right?
02:08And why do we want to speak a lot?
02:11Because when we speak a lot, it convinces us that we know.
02:19Because when we speak a lot, it convinces us that we exist.
02:26The knower of truth abides in his deep self-assurance.
02:37He has no need to insecurely boast.
02:47So the man of words becomes a new man of silence.
02:58Those who had an itch in the lips, find now they have a twist in the tongue.
03:18The very need to keep expressing through words diminishes.
03:43The very need to assure oneself that one is knowledgeable and existent diminishes.
04:04Similarly, the clever man Ashtavakra says becomes stupid.
04:23Stupidity here should be read just as a healing of the tendency to act cleverly.
04:42Stupidity here is not the opposite of cleverness.
04:47Stupidity here is the absence of cleverness.
04:53Pradeepji, this is the thing with words.
05:03Words operate in the dualistic domain.
05:10It becomes difficult to convey the non-dual truth through them.
05:20Ashtavakra could have just said a clever or not clever.
05:34Probably that would not have driven home the point.
05:39So he instead chooses a more provocative word.
05:44He says stupid.
05:46Why does he say stupid?
05:47Why doesn't he simply say that the clever man will not remain clever anymore?
05:53Why does he say that the clever man will turn stupid by the touch of the truth?
06:01Why does he say so?
06:02He says so that Pradeepji asks Acharyaji this question.
06:13If he doesn't provoke you, why will you ask this question?
06:16If he won't ask this question, how will Ashtavakra become clear to you?
06:25If Ashtavakra just says that the eloquent man will lose his eloquence, you will say
06:34fine, he was eloquent, he is not eloquent anymore.
06:42It doesn't hurt you so much.
06:45But when Ashtavakra tells you that truth turns the eloquent man dumb, then you are provoked,
06:54hurt.
06:55You feel offended because you too call yourself a seeker of the truth and you don't want to
07:01call yourself dumb.
07:03And Ashtavakra is saying that the truth will turn the eloquent man dumb.
07:20So a question arrives.
07:22And that gives me an opportunity to be eloquent.
07:31Ashtavakra is not against eloquence.
07:34Ashtavakra is against the compulsive tendency to seek security in words.
07:44Ashtavakra himself is so very eloquent.
07:48And here is your Acharyaji eloquently coming forth on Ashtavakra.
08:04Truth does not cause or diminish a particular kind of behavior.
08:13Truth just dissolves your insecure tendencies.
08:20Once you are not insecure, you may go right or you may go left, it doesn't matter much.
08:28And if you remain insecure, then whether you go right, whether you go left, it won't make
08:35a difference.
08:40Similarly, he says, truth turns the energetic man lazy.
08:55And again that offends.
08:58Truth turns the energetic man lazy.
09:07Not only lazy, Pankaj has done well to point out, you become the lord of the lazy people.
09:25Shiromani.
09:26Amongst the lazy people, you become numero uno.
09:35Now many people are put off.
09:37They say if this is what spirituality does to us, why should we turn spiritual at all?
09:42And that's exactly what Ashtavakra wants to do, to put you off.
09:52You are an unnecessarily burning flame with a lot of smoke and very little light or purpose.
10:08He wants to put you off.
10:11Where is all your energy coming from?
10:20You are burning and that's where your energy is coming from.
10:23Have you seen when you are afraid, how energetic you become?
10:30That's where your energy comes from.
10:33Ashtavakra is saying the man of truth loses all such energy because he is not afraid anymore.
10:46Have you seen when you are jealous, how energetic you become?
10:52Have you seen when you are missing a train or a flight, how energetic you become?
10:59Have you seen when you are angry, how energetic you become?
11:04Ashtavakra is saying the man of truth loses all these energies.
11:14These are the energies of devil.
11:17He instead becomes lazy.
11:21What does Ashtavakra mean by laziness?
11:23He means the man of truth loses the motivation to secure himself or gain for himself.
11:37For himself now he is totally lazy because the self is self secure.
11:44There is no need to work for it.
11:51Does that mean that the man of truth does not work at all?
11:56No.
11:58The man of truth does not work for the self.
12:03He rather works by the self and in the self.
12:09It's a different dimension of energy, it's a different quality of energy.
12:15It is pure energy, uncontaminated.
12:20It is not energy directed at someone, it is not energy directed at a purpose.
12:28It is just energy expressing itself for its own sake.
12:36The man of truth is not energetic because his energy, his race, his dive, his plunge
12:47will fetch him something.
12:48He is energetic because it is great to express energy.
12:56His energy is the energy of a little bird playing around like this, see, no purpose.
13:09You see, even these little birds might probably have some latent purpose.
13:18Maybe if you investigate deep, you will find out that they are also looking for some food.
13:30But the man of truth has no purpose at all.
13:35His energy is free energy.
13:40You get this?
13:41Free energy.
13:42A lot of energy, but free and purposeless.
13:50Works a lot for the sake of working, does a lot for the
14:09sake of doing.
14:13He doesn't work or do to reach or gain or achieve.
14:22All achievement has already happened.
14:34He is already home, but he still works because working is good fun.
14:47So he is not a compulsive worker.
14:50There is no compulsion upon him anymore.
14:58He retains the freedom to rest and he is always restful where rest must be.
15:12As for the body, the body must work and the body keeps working.
15:18It is not the mandate, the constitution, the prakriti of the body to keep resting.
15:38You have hands so that they work.
15:48And when you work, rest comes on its own, does it not?
15:54You need not say that there must be a balance between rest and work, no?
16:04Hands must work.
16:05If hands work, they get tired and if they get tired, they sleep and then there is rest.
16:12Work and rest are one.
16:14Rest is automatically guaranteed to the one who works.
16:20The harder you work, the deeper is your sleep, is it not?
16:29So as far as prakriti is concerned, rest and work go together.
16:35And as far as you are concerned, the real one, the truth, your nature is nothing but
16:43rest.
16:49You abide in your nature and don't even think of providing rest to the hands.
17:00The one who is resting is anyway resting.
17:06The body is not meant to rest.
17:13So don't get alarmed Pradeepji.
17:19Ashtavakra is not asking you to let your hands turn lazy.
17:26The hands must keep working.
17:33That is quite within, the restlessness within must get extinguished.
17:40I ask you, can't you work energetically without restlessness or do you necessarily need a
17:53chaos within, a cyclone within, unrest within to work at all?
18:05Is it necessary?
18:14The Buddha used to quote three types of horses.
18:21Coming from his palatial background, it seems he was fond of horses.
18:32So he would say that the worst type of horses are those that move only when spanked.
18:42And that's how our energy rises.
18:47It rises upon spanking.
18:50When there is trouble, we work.
18:56When the horse is spanked, it runs.
18:59We work to avoid trouble.
19:03For us work is trouble.
19:05Only when there is trouble do we work.
19:14So most people necessitate trouble in order to work.
19:20If there is no trouble, they won't work at all.
19:26So they bring their situations deliberately down to the point of trouble.
19:40Now when there is trouble, they will be forced to work.
19:49This is deep, deep slavery.
20:00The fellow knows that no gentle methods will work upon him.
20:10So he plots against himself.
20:16He turns his situation bad and worse to the extent that he must now necessarily rise into action.
20:38Pradeep ji, is that really needed?
20:56Is it not possible that one works with some dignity?
21:04Is it necessary that the horse runs only when spanked?
21:16Is it necessary that only fear and greed and insecurity and nonsense of all kinds are able
21:25to elicit some movement from you?
21:29Can't you work in joy?
21:43Buddha would say that the highest kind of horses are the ones who run when just whispered
22:00to run.
22:03You need to give them the slightest pointer and move.
22:14The worst kinds require to be beaten up.
22:20Those of the middle kind required to be shown the whip.
22:26Show the whip to them, bring the whip close to them, they then sense the danger and then
22:39they move.
22:41And then there are those of the top quality, you just go close to them, touch them, maybe
22:54gently massage them and they know that it's time to run.
22:58They don't require to be slapped or whipped.
23:15Atma is dignity.
23:20Those who live by the true self live a life of dignity.
23:27Those who live by their falsenesses live a life devoid of all grace, all dignity.
23:42No respect, no glory is available to them.
23:58The only song they dance to is the song of whiplashes, otherwise they do not know any
24:09music, any dance.
24:22Do you want to dance to this gentle breeze or do you want to dance to the music of whiplashes?
24:28Tell me.
24:36That's the truth, that's the Atma that Ashtavakra talks of.
24:50Atma leads to desirelessness.
24:58Do not ask where to begin.
25:01Because you are in middle of that which you keep beginning and ending.
25:15You are asking for a starting point.
25:17Does desirelessness lead to Atma?
25:19Do I begin with desirelessness?
25:23Had you been stationary, I would have told you how and where to begin.
25:28But are you stationary?
25:30Haven't you already begun?
25:33If you have already begun, no point asking where and how to begin.
25:42Look at how you keep beginning.
25:46Look at how all beginnings keep ending.
25:50Where is desirelessness?
26:01There are only desires, right?
26:05Acknowledge that.
26:08These are nice words.
26:12They should encourage us to look at our current state.
26:21Desirelessness must encourage you to look at desires.
26:29Desirelessness by itself is nothing.
26:36Desires is the world of desires.
26:46We have been so convinced of the idea of the desire-action duality that we find
27:13it impossible to conceive that there can be action without desire.
27:29Whenever we have seen, everywhere we have seen just one thing.
27:37When a man is desirous, he acts.
27:46And when there is no desire, then there is no action.
27:59So the desirelessness that you talk of will scare you away.
28:10Because the mind has only seen the desire-action causality.
28:21To the mind, only this exists, the desire-action causal link.
28:27The mind says where there is desire, it causes action.
28:34The more you will talk of desirelessness, the more difficult it will become for you
28:39to look at your desires.
28:45There is a reason.
28:50As long as there is the body, it must act.
28:58Zero action means death.
29:02And if desire means action to the mind, if desire means action, desirelessness means
29:11actionlessness.
29:12And to the body, actionlessness is death.
29:16The more you will talk of desirelessness, the more you will make desirelessness impossible
29:22for you.
29:24The body does not want to die.
29:30The psyche is even more afraid of dying.
29:40And you are talking of desirelessness.
29:44The mind says if no desire, then no action.
29:48And no action means death.
29:52Why do you want to make it difficult for you?
30:10Why don't you begin towards Ashtavakra from where you are?
30:15Ashtavakra is wonderful.
30:18But from where would you go to Ashtavakra?
30:21You are neither Ashtavakra nor Janaka, you are Parameshwari.
30:31And Parameshwari must start from Parameshwari.
30:35Parameshwari must start from where she is.
30:42And where Parameshwari is?
30:46From where Parameshwari is, all that can be seen is the desire, action, causality.
30:56Desire causes action.
30:59And action is life.
31:02So desire is life.
31:04Desirelessness therefore is death.
31:11You may keep saying anything.
31:14The body and the mind do not want death.
31:27So rather look at desires.
31:31Desires are there, already there.
31:39The world is so afraid of true spirituality because of words like desirelessness.
31:56I don't want to become desireless.
32:01If I enter spirituality, I'll become desireless.
32:06I'll have no desires left.
32:09And that's very scary to say, let alone experience.
32:23You go and tell somebody, come, I'll give you desirelessness.
32:29How likely is he to come with you?
32:44Does the spiritual man have desires?
32:49Does the spiritual man not have desires?
32:52The answer to both is no.
33:00Desires are there, but the spiritual man does not have them.
33:03So the answer is both yes and no.
33:07Does the spiritual man have desires?
33:10Yes and no.
33:11Does the spiritual man not have desires?
33:13Yes and no.
33:22In your case, what happens is that there is an identification with what you are wearing.
33:34So if the kurta is brown, you start saying I am brown.
33:44You have a great identification with the mind.
33:46So if the mind has desires, you start saying I have desires.
33:52In the case of the spiritual man, the natural man, the mind does what it must.
34:10But the self remains where it must.
34:22There is no conflation, no identification.
34:25So are desires there?
34:28Yes.
34:30Does the spiritual man have desires?
34:32No.
34:34So the answer is yes and no.
34:36Desires are there, but I don't have them.
34:42Would the desires be actionated and fulfilled?
34:46Again yes and no.
34:49Some of the desires might indeed get fulfillment.
34:53I want water, I may get water.
34:55In a limited sense, the desire has been fulfilled.
34:59But have I been fulfilled?
35:01No.
35:02The desire has been fulfilled, I have not been fulfilled.
35:05I am always fulfilled.
35:10Do you get this permission?
35:20Are desires there?
35:21Yes.
35:22Do I have desires?
35:23No.
35:24Did the desire get fulfilled?
35:25Probably yes.
35:26Did I get fulfilled?
35:27No.
35:28Sometimes the desire will get frustrated also.
35:41The mind does not get what it wants.
35:45That's rather the norm.
35:47So did the mind get frustrated?
35:49Yes.
35:50Did I get frustrated?
35:53No.
35:55Desirelessness is not the opposite of being desirous.
36:14It's something different.